With the advent of social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites), it has become increasingly common for people to publicly share information. Social networking sites typically allow a user to create and maintain their own unique user profile that contains personal information about themselves (e.g., their name, residence, hobbies, etc.). Once a user becomes a member of a social networking site, the user can communicate with other users of the social networking site (e.g., with a specific individual, with a group of individuals, or with all users of the social networking site).
A user can send messages or post updates to one or more other users (for example, at their own volition, or in response to a previous message or update from themselves or another user). These updates can include any type of information, often being limited only by the user's imagination. Some messages include status updates that describe what the user is currently doing at the time of the status update, or what the user intends to do in the near future. Some updates express a user's satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with a product or experience. Some updates ask questions to other users of the social networking site. Depending on the context, it is desirable to monitor the content of the messages or updates and to allow the user or people (e.g., associated with the user in some way, such as a friend of the user, a contact of the user, members of the same group of the user) to initiate service requests.